Review search
The Wonder Lover (Malcolm Knox, A&U)
Released May 2015
John Wonder is, on the surface, a very ordinary man. However, his work, as an assessor of remarkable facts and feats, sees him travel a lot and the reader discovers... Read more
Bloodhound: Searching for My Father (Ramona Koval, Text)
Released May 2015
Journalist Ramona Koval has carved a reputation as a consummate book critic and interviewer. Her passion for storytelling and sharp analysis is turned inwards in Bloodhound: Searching for My Father,... Read more
Black Rock White City (A S Patrić, Transit Lounge)
Released April 2015
Short-story writer A S Patrić’s first full-length offering is a slow-burning tale about a couple worn out by war but trying desperately to carve out a brighter future for themselves.... Read more
Fallen: A Memoir (Rochelle Siemienowicz, Affirm Press)
Released May 2015
Best known for her film criticism, Melbourne-based writer Rochelle Siemienowicz explores her personal life in this thought-provoking memoir about religion, marriage and sexuality. As its title suggests, Fallen charts Siemienowicz’s... Read more
Lion Attack! (Oliver Mol, Scribe)
Released May 2015
Creative nonfiction, which straddles the line between reality and make-believe, has been growing in profile as a genre. When an author consciously writes something that is mostly true but sometimes... Read more
Mannix (Brenda Niall, Text)
Released April 2015
‘A disruptive force in Australia, an anti-British agitator in the United States, and a nightmare to the British government,’ writes biographer Brenda Niall of her subject, Archbishop Daniel Mannix. Born... Read more
The Most Good You Can Do (Peter Singer, Text)
Released April 2015
Forty years on from Animal Liberation, Peter Singer is still challenging our complacency with his advocacy for new ideas and movements. ‘Effective altruism’—doing the most good with the available resources—is... Read more
Motherhood & Creativity: The Divided Heart (ed by Rachel Power, Affirm Press)
Released April 2015
In 2008, Melbourne-based freelance writer and editor Rachel Power released The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood, a collection of interviews with Australian artists, writers and actors juggling the competing demands... Read more
Mothermorphosis (ed by Monica Dux, MUP)
Released April 2015
Australian women writers, including Kathy Lette, Kate Holden, Jo Case and Catherine Deveny, have contributed essays on their experiences of motherhood and birth to this collection. Edited by Monica Dux,... Read more
One Life: My Mother’s Story (Kate Grenville, Text)
Released April 2015
In One Life, Kate Grenville takes the story of her mother’s life and makes it quite mesmerising. Her mother left behind fragments of memoir, and Grenville uses her magic writerly... Read more
Ransacking Paris (Patti Miller, UQP)
Released April 2015
This delightful recollection of the rewarding year that writer Patti Miller spent in Paris completing a challenging manuscript is that rare object—a book for anyone who believes we don’t need... Read more
Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather (Karen Lamb, UQP)
Released May 2015
Born in Brisbane in 1925, Thea Astley grew up in a family where her parents were not close. Karen Lamb describes how her strict Catholic upbringing and later work in... Read more
Windsor’s Way (Tony Windsor, MUP)
Released April 2015
‘I strongly believe the world is run by those who turn up,’ writes Tony Windsor in this memoir, which covers his 22 years as an MP at state and federal... Read more
The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine (Krissy Kneen, Text)
Released May 2015
I have long been an admirer of the work of Brisbane writer Krissy Kneen, who I believe is one of Australia’s hidden literary gems. With each new book, I find... Read more
The Good Greek Girl (Maria Katsonis, Jane Curry Publishing)
Released April 2015
Harvard graduate Maria Katsonis is an accomplished public servant whose successful self-image is disrupted when she falls into depression. In this memoir, we follow her self-medication, suicidal thoughts and a... Read more
Summer’s Gone (Charles Hall, Margaret River)
Released February 2015
Summer’s Gone, a debut novel by Melbourne writer Charles Hall, is a coming-of-age story set in the 1960s that mingles nostalgia with tragedy; Beatles-mania with backyard abortions. Its protagonist Nick is a... Read more
One Step at a Time (Jane Jolly, illus by Sally Heinrich, MidnightSun)
Released February 2015
MidnightSun ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to finance its first picture book. It is an unusual and challenging book to launch its children’s list. It is touching and tragic, but... Read more
Useful (Debra Oswald, Viking)
Released February 2014
At his nadir, Sullivan Moss stuffs up his own suicide attempt and is forced to reflect on his unreliable, selfish, underachieving ways. He strikes on the idea of doing something... Read more
Bad Behaviour (Rebecca Starford, A&U)
Released February 2015
Being a 14-year-old girl can be brutal, and Bad Behaviour is Melbourne-based editor Rebecca Starford’s memoir of a harrowing year spent at a posh boarding school’s bush campus. Starford lived in a... Read more
Navigatio (Patrick Holland, Transit Lounge)
Released November 2014
With the poise and economy of expression of a Zen Buddhist kōan, Navigatio explores the worldly and metaphysical searchings of St Brendan of Clonfert, a sixth-century Christian monk who braves... Read more
